🇦🇺 This Week in Australian Startups #104, 9th February 2025

This week saw the the release of the annual State of Australian Startup Funding report from Cut Through Venture and Folklore - I wrote a pretty detailed analysis which you can read below

---

Top News

• Disrupt Radio: Workers claim no contracts, no pay, no answers (SmartCompany)

• Dovetail CEO's LinkedIn post draws scrutiny amid messy legal fight (Capital Brief)

• Beaten Zone Venture Partners raises $10m for defence tech, targets $60m (Capital Brief)

• Biotech company Alterity Therapeutics seeking to raise $40m (AFR)

• Microsoft leaves door open to media deal talks under Labor’s tech levy (Capital Brief)

• Sydney workplace safety Saas company Beakon acquired by UK multinational Ideagen (BNA)

• “Transformational”: AirTrunk’s Robin Khuda donates $100 million for women in STEM (SmartCompany | Robin Khuda)

• Adelaide e-bike startup TAV Systems signs Indian distribution deal (BNA)

• DeepSeek banned from Australian government devices (InnovationAus)

• Dovetail executive alleges the start-up’s CEO repeatedly assaulted her (AFR)

• CBA rolls out AI agent for business customers (The Australian)

• Lender Lighter Capital has a new $30m fund offering non-dilutive funding for startups with investment from the Victorian government and iPartners (Startup Daily)

• Seek walks from Xref after Xref's shareholders rejected the takeover deal (AFR)

• Advanced Navigation joins forces with Gilmour Space to 'bullet proof' its rocket guidance system (BNA)

• LaunchVic unveils Basecamp program to address startup leadership gap (SmartCompany)

• Liftoff for local space tech with $3.6m in federal grants (InnovationAus)

• Start-up lender Kashcade kicks off $50m capital raising (AFR)

• Employment Hero announces it’s reached profitability and $250m in ARR (Ben Thompson | AFR)

Funding Rounds

• Lorikeet, an AI customer support platform for Fintechs, Healthtechs, & other complex businesses, has raised $14m from Blackbird, Square Peg, Skip Capital (Startup Daily | AFR)

• Lawpath, Australia's largest legal, accounting and business support platform for small businesses and startups, has raised $10m from Westpac (SmartCompany | Startup Daily | BNA)

• Ovum, a holistic AI health assistant for women, has raised $1.7m in a Pre-Seed round from Giant Leap, Antler, Wollemi Capital, Nakatomi Venture Studio, The Alice Anderson Fund (The Australian | Capital Brief)

• AdvanCell, a clinical stage radiopharmaceutical company with a platform technology for a revolutionary cancer treatment called Targeted Alpha Therapy, has raised $178.6m ($112m USD) in a Series C round from SV Health Ventures, Sanofi Ventures, Abingworth, SymBiosis (Capital Brief | businesswire)

• Nuj, a RegTech startup that helps superannuation funds manage and analyse member data for better insights and compliance, has raised $2m in a Seed round (Startup Daily)